View Full Version : Stem Cutting
moomooman
12-24-2008, 01:55 AM
Say you have two bananas both 10' tall and equally healthy, same type etc etc... Winter comes along and they're killed to about 5 feet of trunk. If you cut one to the ground and the other to the the greenwood, would the taller one have the better chance of fruiting, or would they both fruit no matter what size, once they reached the designated no. of leaves? Or would it mean that cutting to the greenwood vs the stem is like getting a year's head start on the ground cut?
Also are there any specific types of bananas that are best suited to this?
I'm sorry if im not specific enough, but this is kinda hard to put into words.
Oops! the title meant to say "Stem Cutting"
Richard
12-24-2008, 02:33 AM
There is no stem. What appears to be a tree trunk is a pseudo-stem, composed entirely of leaf-stems. The corm underground thrusts new leaves or the flower bud up between the previous stems. If the flower bud is already part-way up the pseudo-stem and you decapitate it while cutting back the trunk -- there goes your harvest. :(
bigdog
12-24-2008, 10:31 AM
Flowering size is determined by pseudostem height, to some degree. If a plant is getting ready to flower fairly soon and is cut back, however, it can flower at a smaller size. The number of leaves "rule" is definitely not a hard and fast rule by any stretch of the imagination.
So to answer your question, I don't know. LOL!! Well, I will give you an example of my experience here. I have a mat of Musa itinerans, and protected one stem to just over a foot or so, and let the other 2 die to the ground. While the protected one had a head start and was the larger of the two the previous year anyway, both pseudostems ended the year at about the same height. Neither one flowered though. Hmm...that really doesn't help either, now does it? LOL!!
Frank:0517:
jack hagenaars
12-29-2008, 06:34 PM
Good question!!Got mean wondering?
Chironex
12-29-2008, 08:57 PM
However, if it is cut when the meristem is moving up inside of the pstem and you cut it, the main pstem will not blossom and will die back.
vBulletin® v3.6.8, Copyright ©2000-2020, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.